It's all just a matter of perspective…

Tag Archives: app

If our iPhone apps were clan members on a season of Survivor, several of them have had the coveted status of immunity for far too long – and another app is being added to that untouchable list.

In preparation for the Apple Watch release, set to drop on April 24th at a range of prices ($350 all the way to $17 000[!!]), Apple has been updating its (read: our) iDevices with iOS version 8.2; this update comes with a number of stability fixes and app optimizations, as well as the aforementioned addition of a new app that iUsers are incapable of deleting: Apple Watch.

Those of us that have updated our iPhones since 8.2 arrived have been treated to the following message / free advertising from Apple:

Why did no one think to plaster U2’s newest album cover on the screen?

While this in and of itself is not especially irritating, largely because the Apple Watch requires iOS 8.2 or later, the fact that this new app is un-deleteable puts it firmly in a never-opened ‘utilities’ folder on my phone that contains similarly useless, yet immune, apps like ‘Tips,’ ‘Stocks,’ ‘Compass,’ ‘iTunes Store,’ and ‘Passbook.’ This, by the way, is not to say that these apps are entirely useless – they just are to me on my iPhone.

Furthermore, in what will come as a surprise to almost no one, this update has ignored a major problem that has been brought to Apple by – wait for it – thousands of people. In addition to those speaking up about the problem on Apple’s forums, one particular thread has been viewed more than six hundred thousand times. What is this issue, you ask?

It’s called WiFried and it’s, essentially, a bug that breaks your iDevice’s ability to connect to WiFi and decimates its battery functionality, leaving some users with mere hours of phone use after charging it to max capacity. Forbes.com has further reported that a number of users are outright accusing Apple of not only deliberately ignoring the ongoing issue, but erasing some of their posts on the Apple forums in order to quell the community’s ongoing rage and discontent with the situation.

While I personally have not experienced issues with WiFried (yet – dammit, where’s some wood to knock on), this must be frustrating for a great number of people; several websites have popped up to help people, though I cannot attest to their effectiveness. If these and other fixes don’t work, and major issues persist for much longer, however, Apple may have to Watch their back.